The curious case of Mark-Paul Gosselaar

As you may have seen in my review yesterday, I was not a fan of TNT’s “Franklin & Bash,” which debuts tonight. But even though Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s performance trends more towards the smarm than he’s done in a while, I’m still glad to see him working – and, after a few Steven Bochco shows in a row, to see that he’s now just another working adult actor, hireable by various producers for various gigs.

Gosselaar and I are pretty close in age, so when “Saved by the Bell” was airing during my own high school years, the only way I was able to enjoy it was ironically. But I know that people even only a few years younger were genuinely obsessed with that show, in a way that members of Generation X spent way too much time watching “Brady Bunch” reruns, or “Who’s the Boss” or “Full House” or some other show that hasn’t aged well but seemed super-mega-awesome before puberty really hit.

And as the show’s lead – the one whom the producers built the show around after importing a few of the actors over from Disney Channel’s “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” – Gosselaar was a huge part of generating that rabid cult audience. Not a lot of great Zack-centric clips on YouTube (though, of course, Gosselaar is there as the straight man in the most iconic “Saved by the Bell moment ever) but this clip where Zack demonstrates his “time out” power comes vaguely close to summing up what he was about:

I remember interviewing him when he first joined the cast of “NYPD Blue” (for a story that pre-dates The Star-Ledger’s online archives, unfortunately), and it was unnerving how much the mention of “Saved by the Bell” blackened his mood. It wasn’t that he’d had a bad experience making the show, or regretted the time spent there, but the years immediately following the end of his time as Zack Morris were hard.

“It was a tough slap in the face to get off that show and realize I had nothing,” he told me. “I basically had this baggage with me for years. I”d walk into the room and they”d say, ‘Oh, he”s good, but he”s that guy from Saved by the Bell.””

Things obviously turned with “NYPD Blue,” where he was given a better character to play than fellow child star alum Rick Schroeder had, where he got to apprentice with the great Dennis Franz, and where the writers knew what to give him and when. Again, not a ton of clips on YouTube from the John Clark Jr. years, but here’s a scene where John gets some troubling news about his mentally unstable girlfriend:

That gig worked well enough that Bochco hired Gosselaar again for “Raising the Bar.” By that point, there were also no doubt casting directors and development executives ascending into power who had grown up on the show and viewed “Hey, it’s Zack Morris!” not as something to run away from, but something to be excited about. So at some point, Gosselaar learned to embrace his innate Zack-ness, which led to this fantastic appearance with Jimmy Fallon a couple of years ago:

Some child stars wind up with dark endings (Corey Haim), some quit the business (or, in the case of Ron Howard, figure out another part of the business to thrive in), but some like Gosselaar and Neil Patrick Harris eventually find a way to not only transcend their baggage, but have fun with it.

So, for those of you who grew up on “Saved by the Bell,” I’m wondering exactly what your memories of the show were. Did you feel at the time it was incredibly cheesey? Did you think it was great and come to understand later – or possibly even during the run of the show? Do you now think back on the time you spent watching it fondly, or more in a “How many hours did I waste on that?” kind of way? And are you now capable of watching Gosselaar in an adult role without immediately thinking of him hanging out with Screech and Kelly Kapowski?

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I think it stinks the kids got no money from the zillions of replays that are on all the time.

By: Anonymous

06.01.2011 @ 1:36 PM

I’m 27 and I remember watching this show growing up and loving Zack Morris. Since I was younger than the characters were, I remember this being the version of High School I wanted to go to, not the one I heard stories about.

Alan, I’m curious if you agree with Mark in that he had to dye his hair black and take darker roles like the underrated ‘Dead Man on Campus’ to shed Zack Morris so he’d even be CONSIDERED for a show like ‘NYPD’?

By: sepinwall

06.01.2011 @ 1:39 PM

The darker hair is actually his natural color, but yes, it helped him in those early adult days to not look quite so much like Zack.

By: Leah1

02.21.2013 @ 11:27 PM

his natural hair color is brown he dyed his hair black for the role. aside from being obvious, he said so himself.

By: Anonymous

06.01.2011 @ 1:37 PM

Alan,

You should get the clip of Mark on SVU. That was when I really believed he was an awesome actor. This new show is gonna get my attention.

By: Anonymous

06.01.2011 @ 1:37 PM

Quite unrelated, but:

“where he was given a better character to play than fellow child star alum Rick Schroeder had”

what was the problem with the character Schroeder played?

By: sepinwall

06.01.2011 @ 1:41 PM

Started off well for an episode or three (basically the character Gosselaar wound up playing, in fact), and then David Milch bound poor Schroeder up in a series of weird tics and neuroses and catchphrases (“I don’t like getting stirred up”). By the time he apologized to Kim Delaney for rubbing snot in her hair, I just felt sorry for him, because nobody could play that part and seem plausible as the co-lead on this show.

By: Marc

06.01.2011 @ 1:47 PM

I found him remarkably plausible. Like I said below, He created a character with tons of pain, clearly created by a problem childhood that they teased and never fully filled in and then he left prematurely. To myself and everyone I knew at the time he was very plausible and we all were bummed when he left, especially how prematurely he left.

By: sepinwall

06.01.2011 @ 1:55 PM

That’s fine. I thought Schroeder was terrific, but I think Milch did him a tremendous disservice with that role, particularly since he left the show without telling Bochco or anyone else exactly what the deep dark secret was that so haunted poor Danny.

By: Marc

06.01.2011 @ 2:00 PM

I agree, he did do him and the audience a big disservice. You can’t expect people to invest in a character (which I completely did)and then when you’re done with him, all of a sudden, just jam a bunch of facts in the last episode (the one the actor doesn’t even appear in). They left his leaving very ambiguous publicly and like I said while Mark-Paul did a fine job, I was never invested in his character in the same way.

By: JanieJones

06.02.2011 @ 12:47 AM

I have to agree with Marc. I was invested in Schroeder’s character and was very upset with the abrupt departure.
However, I do like MPG and wish the show was getting better reviews. He has an easy likability to him.
I never watched Saved By the Bell and as a Gen X’r (not my favorite term), I never watched reruns of the Brady’s, saw maybe one episode of Full House and barely remember Who’s The Boss. I remember my mom and dad feeding me tv- MASH, Kojak, Quincy, Policewoman, Hitchcock, The Hardy Boys, Double Creature Feature on Saturdays-wow I feel very old.

By: Evan Liddiard

06.01.2011 @ 1:40 PM

I certainly spent more time watching Saved by the Bell than anyone should, but I look back on the time fondly, and it is certainly something that is shared with my peer group over a few beverages.
I initially always see Zack Morris, but in most cases, that makes me more likely to watch.

By: kingofk1ngs

06.01.2011 @ 1:40 PM

I’m

By: Anonymous

06.01.2011 @ 1:41 PM

You keep using the past tense. I still watch replays every so often. I was in high school when it was on and I always loved it for the cheese factor. I watch it every so often now for the same reason I watch 90210 reruns every so often now. (Though I’m still bummed that they all never ran into each other even though both shows sent the kids to Cal U.)

By: JMart

06.01.2011 @ 1:43 PM

I give him a lot of credit. I guess the most successful SBTB alum is Mario Lopez and he doesn’t act anymore, it’s all entertainment hosting gigs. But Gosselar has done a lot to get his career away from zack morris and still comes off likeable and intriguing.

By: Leah1

02.21.2013 @ 11:32 PM

I disagree Mario Lopez is just a host and only a recognizable name in the states, worldwide he is seen as the guy from SBTB Slater. Mark-Paul is the most successful and famous worldwide and it does not surprise me one bit.

By: Marc

06.01.2011 @ 1:43 PM

I completely disagree. I thought Rick Schroeder’s character was much better developed and far more interesting. There was clearly so much pain lurking in his backstory. He wore it on his face all the time. I was so bummed when his character was written our prematurely and it was never fully explored. They jammed a bunch of stuff in that last episode (the one Rick wasn’t even in) but after all the time with the paper clips and his seeming uneasy, it felt incomplete. Mark-Paul definitely did a fine job but I don’t think hos role was at all more interesting. Rick really created a character with the heavy NY accent and Like I said all the pain he wore on his face. I honestly think his character was even more interesting than Jimmy Smits’s was. With Rick you saw his uneasiness in his own skin. It was apparent when he dated that young cop early in his run. He had a connection with Diane. Maybe he sensed her pain as well. Mark Paul Did a fine job but to me, there was nothing special at all about his character. I always missed Rick the last 4 years of the show.

By: Leland

06.01.2011 @ 1:43 PM

I was 10-11 when I first started Watching Saved By The Bell, and was way over it by the time the reached “The College Years”. I’m always past seeing one of its former stars and having their “Saved…” persona’s ruin their current work. (Except for Screech of course, that’s one that’s impossible to shake). I hope Gosselaar finds success, unfortunately this new show looks awful.
As for Saved By The Bell thoughts…I remember always thinking that it was funny how they tried to pass off the same hallway set as different parts of the school, and the same cast of extra’s. It added a nice continuity, since the guys in the background became objects to make fun of as you grew older, and more inclined to herbal remedies.

By: kingofk1ngs

06.01.2011 @ 1:45 PM

I loved watching Saved By The Bell on Saturday mornings. It was cheesy and fun.

When I find an episode on tv today, I always watch a few minutes and it still has that charm. It’s amazing how better the quality of that show was compared to the shows on Nick and Disney are today.

Alan, you should check out this Tumblr page about Saved By The Bell. It very funny stuff. [lolslater.tumblr.com]

By: Crumdawg97

06.01.2011 @ 1:45 PM

I loved Saved By the Bell. And I think I loved it because of the cheesiness as much as I loved it in spite of the cheesiness. Even to this day, if I have some extra time in the morning before work, my first thought is, “Hey, I should flip on Saved By the Bell.”

By: Garrry

06.01.2011 @ 1:50 PM

Also John from Cincinnati.

By: april

06.01.2011 @ 1:58 PM

I strangely find it easier to grow with Mark-Paul Gosselaar (despite not ever being able to spell his name correctly) than with Tiffani Theissen in White Collar even if she was a minor character in the season I watched. That said, I wasn’t an avid viewer of Saved by the Bell so it probably wouldn’t be that difficult for me either way.

By: HitFix User

06.12.2011 @ 10:23 PM

when i watch white collar, i have no problem with Tiffani’s role in it as a 30+ wife of a 40+ fbi agent. she is very great in that role as she was in fastlane or in the later years of 92210

By: Daniela

06.01.2011 @ 1:59 PM

I loved Saved by the Bell. I even watched the version that came after the original gang left (although it was not good, even my younger self could recognize that).

The chronology of the show sucks, though. My friend owns the DVDs and the episodes aren’t even in their proper order. When it aired on TV it was a bit better, although I always got confused when Kelly left and that other girl came on, and then Kelly came back.

By: Jeff Q

06.01.2011 @ 2:00 PM

I was right in the middle of the Saved By the Bell demo, but loved him on NYPD Blue. There’s a scene where Andy finally gets him to break down, and it got a little dusty in my living room.

By: velocityknown

06.01.2011 @ 2:02 PM

Iâ€™d walk into the room and theyâ€™d say, â€˜Oh, heâ€™s good, but heâ€™s that guy from Saved by the Bell.â€™â€

First thing that popped into my head when I read that. Sorry, could resist.

I think that whole, “Oh he was (child character) on (now-thought-of-as-lame-show), so we can’t cast him.” Is a really present and unfortunate situation today. However, it’s all about how these actors and actresses battle through it. I think that kind of thought process only lasts for so long and then one day people take notice and realize the person can act. The people who fail (like most child stars) are either not emotionally prepared to just handle that rejection for a little while or buy into what everyone is saying about them and become a ridiculous person (Dustin Diamond, Danny Bonaduce). So it’s always admirable to see people like Gosselaar to fight through it and come out the other side standing with respectable roles.

Even if Franklin and Bash is terrible.

By: velocityknown

06.01.2011 @ 2:04 PM

*supposed to be “couldn’t resist” by the way

By: Chrissy

06.01.2011 @ 11:39 PM

It’s not exactly the same thing, because his role was a lot less iconic and cheesy, but I can’t tell you how pleased I am that Jason Bateman has a career now (and an interesting one). And NPH, of course. There’s something comforting and fun about seeing the minor stars of your youth succeed. Like no matter how bad your childhood taste might have been, you weren’t wrong about everything.

On the other hand, it can make some roles really hard to take seriously. Gosselaar played a porn actor who gets sexually assaulted on an episode of SVU. It’s actually a pretty affecting episode, which also features Elizabeth Banks. But at the time, I had a really hard time separating him from Zach, as good as he was.

By: Tay

05.22.2013 @ 10:40 PM

Funny, i can easily see Mark playing the lead role in White Collar. The character is Zach Morris.

By: nic919

06.01.2011 @ 2:03 PM

Being only a few years younger than most of the actors on that show, I knew most of it was silly, but Zack Morris was cute so of course I watched it. I was also at the age where Saturday cartoons weren’t interesting, but Saved by the Bell aired just after them, at about 11 or 11:30 and so I just transferred my Saturday morning cartoon habit to a SBTB habit.
I do recall never getting the appeal of Mario Lopez because AC Slater always seemed like a macho ass and I wasn’t young enough to find that funny. I kept waiting for Jessie to smack him.
SBTB was basically a daytime version of 90210, but just took itself far less seriously.
I am glad to see MPG bust out of the Zack Morris trap, although that Fallon skit is awesome and hopefully he can get a better gig soon. He was pretty decent in Raising the Bar despite overly earnest writing and the black / white depictions of defence attorneys and prosecutors.

By: supergirlsudz

06.01.2011 @ 2:06 PM

I was a kid during the SBTB days and thought it was the greatest show ever. I even sent Mark-Paul Gosselaar a fan letter. I watched the show at 5:05 and 5:35 every day on TBS (thank goodness they stopped airing their shows on the :05). At the time, I didn’t think it was cheesy at all! And I remember having to choose between Full House and SBTB: The College Years because they had the same time slot, and I chose SBTB.

I think enough time has passed that seeing the Bayside kids in other roles is actually pretty neat. I still have affection for most of them and even though Franklin and Bash doesn’t seem like my type of show, I may check it out because I like Gosselaar and want him to succeed.

By: Jeff

06.01.2011 @ 2:15 PM

I was a huge fan of the show growing up, even when it was cheesy. It was a cute fun show on Saturday morning. Plus I had a huge crush on Tiffany-Amber Thiessen. Still do!

By: jcpdiesel21

06.01.2011 @ 2:15 PM

I’m 32 and was a huge fan of Saved By the Bell as a kid when it aired on Saturday mornings. I would watch with my older sister and initially crushed on Slater, but eventually came around to realize that Zack was incredibly cool and awesome. I still occasionally catch reruns of the show and as an adult it’s definitely a lot more cheesy, but still a pleasure to watch. The episodes are fun even though I’ve seen them dozens of times.

By: Kmarko

06.01.2011 @ 2:22 PM

It seems to be a really defined period of time where people watched that show. I think I was maybe a year or two off from having watched it.

My daughter watches it after school now, though–it’s funny, she sees the cheesiness, but enjoys it anyway.

By: ET

06.01.2011 @ 2:26 PM

I’m 24. I grew up watching Saved by the Bell re-runs and “The New Class” and “College Years” and every other TNBC show that was a copycat (Hang Time!).

The show is obviously pretty cheesy…but so were the 1980’s. I watch them mainly for the awesome style, ironic language and Tiffany Amber Theissen.

Saved by the Bell will always have a place on my television.

By: KarenL

06.01.2011 @ 2:28 PM

Well Kelly Kapowskiâ€™s on another basic cable show now (White Collar), which I find a lot more disconcerting than Zach on TNT.

Personally I have a real fondness for the show. I was probably just at that age where I could take it seriously, especially because I came to it late when it was already in reruns (probably in its last year or two on air). I donâ€™t actually remember watching it, more like having already watched it, it seemed like such an established and essential part of my childhood.

But actually, most of all I remember it as part of the overall background to growing up that subsequently offered a common starting point of conversation in high school and college. I remember a school trip when I was probably 18, where the entire bus was singing theme songs, Saved by the Bell, Fresh Prince,a momentary break from the regular divisions of our class. When I wake up in the morning… wow Iâ€™ve gotten all nostalgic just thinking about that!

But as for Gosselaar, I quite enjoy seeing him in other roles and want him to be successful. Partly because of left over affection I guess, partly because I liked what I saw of him on NYPD, and mostly because he seems like an institution almost. Iâ€™d rather have him on my TV than off it.

By: DonBoy

06.01.2011 @ 2:44 PM

A couple of commenters have mentioned Tiffani Thiessen, who seems not to have had such a problem. I’d guess that the “child star” problem is worse for boys/men, in that “boy” roles are more different from “man” roles than “teenage girl” roles are from “young woman” roles. See also Alyssa Milano.

By: Eric S.

06.01.2011 @ 2:49 PM

I think the obvious question that nobody is asking here is what the hell ever happened to Lark Voorhies?

By: Bunk

06.01.2011 @ 2:52 PM

Two words…How High

By: Stan

06.01.2011 @ 2:51 PM

I was a little younger than the actors and knew it was cheesy, but watched SBTB mostly because of the hot girls. I haven’t really watched Mark in anything else, but that’s mostly because the projects he does don’t really interest me. And the few times I have caught him in a movie or TV show he didn’t really do it for me. I can watch Neil Patrick Harris after Doogie, but he’s a MUCH better actor than Mark is. But it’s good to see him working and not falling victim to the vices that many child actors do.

By: Leah1

02.21.2013 @ 11:41 PM

Mark-Paul is an amazing actor, much better than NPH.

By: JB

06.01.2011 @ 2:54 PM

I saw Gosselaar in The Understudy on Broadway with Julie White, and he was genuinely terrific. Very naturalistic actor, considering Saved by the Bell was so over the top. Dream casting would be a role on The Good Wife.

By: Anonymous

06.02.2011 @ 2:11 AM

This. I also saw that production and was quite impressed with him (I’ve never seen an ep of SBTB, so I never had that association).

By: Adub

06.01.2011 @ 3:02 PM

I loved Saved By the Bell and remember it very fondly, and I definitely more likely to watch something with one of the gang in it.

By: Adub

06.01.2011 @ 3:03 PM

I loved Saved By the Bell and remember it very fondly even if (and maybe because) its so cheesy, and I am definitely more likely to watch something with one of the gang in it.

By: Adub

06.01.2011 @ 3:05 PM

I loved Saved By the Bell and remember it very fondly even if (and maybe because) its so cheesy, and I definitely more likely to watch something with one of the gang in it.

By: Bunny Colvin

06.01.2011 @ 3:13 PM

I loved Saved by the Bell for many years. I now know how cheesy it was, but I still loved it when I was watching it. Saved by the Bell, Duck Tales, Tail Spin, Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck were the first shows that I regularly watched … and I also liked that one where Dick Butkis was the basketball coach for the team with the blonde girl as their star … good times. I know Saved by the Bell wasn’t the best show ever, but I still loved it at the time.

By: Anonymous

06.01.2011 @ 3:16 PM

I’m excited to see MPG in Franklin and Bash because I am a huge fan. I have to admit I still get my 1/2 hour to an hour of Saved By The Bell every morning on TBS!

By: Jason

06.01.2011 @ 3:28 PM

When I was 12 years old, there were two networks that would run the repeats in back-to-back blocks, so I would get home from school and watch SBTB for 2 or 3 hours (more on Fridays!) while I sat on the floor and played Legos. It was definitely not cheesy then – and the cheesy factor now really adds to the nostalgia when I happen to catch a rerun. I actually bought the DVDs for my wife a few years back and we had a great time watching them all with our group of friends.

And may I just add:
“There’s NO TIME! There’s never any time! I don’t have time to study! I’ll never get into Stanford! … “I’m so excited, I’m so excited, I’m so…scared…”

By: Anonymous

06.01.2011 @ 4:52 PM

Well, since we’re all having fun geeking out on SBTB… it wouldn’t be a geek out post without a jerk like me pointing something like this out…AHEM… it’s “Stansbury” actually. “The Harvard of the west.” Why did they rename Stanford but not Harvard? That was so funny to be when I was old enough to get it.

By: Jason

06.01.2011 @ 9:56 PM

Check out YouTube man – in this case she was freaking out about not getting in to STANFORD. But yes, you have shown your geekiness by noting that typically the reference was to Stansbury. Thanks for playing. Come back next week.

By: Shannon

06.01.2011 @ 3:53 PM

I genuinely loved Saved by the Bell when I was younger, then came to appreciate it in a much more ironic way later.

The role that really changed the way I see MPG was his guest spot on Weeds last year, which you didn’t mention here. Seeing him do those things to Nancy Botwin pretty much banished Zack Morris from my mind permanently.

By: Leah1

02.21.2013 @ 11:43 PM

lol good point

By: Jenn

06.01.2011 @ 3:55 PM

I’m 27, and I LOVED “Saved by the Bell”. No regrets on having seen each episode probably 10 times, or knowing exactly what that YouTube video is before even clicking the link. I’m in the “thought it was great and came to understand later” camp. I think I realized that it was kind of a terrible show when they brought in Tori without Kelly and Jessie. That’s the first show I had ever seen do that.

The dark hair definitely helps me watch him without thinking of Zack. However, I won’t be watching F&B because it seems REALLY douchey and I can’t stand Breckin Meyer.

By: Erin

06.01.2011 @ 4:23 PM

I loved Saved by the Bell as a kid — always watched it right after Saturday morning cartoons. I was eleven when it began, so I grew out of it before the show ended. I still have a lot of affection for it, but I have even more affection for the actors — Mark-Paul Gosselaar especially.

I never watched NYPD Blue when the episodes were new, but I saw many of MPG’s episodes in reruns (not all, unfortunately) and I was an immediate fan of the character. I still want to give anything he’s in the benefit of the doubt — though admittedly I never watched Raising the Bar, and I’m not sure I’ll watch Franklin & Bash. But I very much want him to succeed.

Here’s what I’m not sure of, though: How much of my affection for MPG is because he’s just a likable guy (or at least comes across that way on-screen) and how much is because I loved SBTB as a kid?

By: JND

06.01.2011 @ 4:28 PM

I was right in the age range where I loved it at first (I was 12 when it started) and, like most of the girls, had a tween crush on either the blonde guy or the dark haired guy (what ever happened to him?… [www.youtube.com] – and no, he was NOT a member of Menudo), but after a year or two I started to suspect that it might not be as realistic or well acted as I had first believed.

Still, I kept watching because there wasn’t much else on Saturday mornings (it was either SBTB or reruns of Grizzly Adams- I still have a Grizzly Adams action figure around here somewhere), and so did everyone else: I remember watching the caffeine pill scene and the next Monday half the kids at school making fun of it, so obviously they were still watching too (the other half of the kids still loved it and wouldn’t make fun of this “very special episode”).

Apparently, the nostalgia never fades. The only reason I watched Showgirls (on video- a bit too young to see it in theaters) was to see how Jessie Spano was doing… she wasn’t doing well at that time, apparently. To this day, I’m inexplicably happy whenever I see any cast members in anything. It’s weird.

By: Patrick Wynne

06.01.2011 @ 6:00 PM

MPG will always be Zack Morris to me, but in a good way. I can’t say I’m more or less likely to check out a show if he’s in it, but I don’t hold his childhood role against him.

Unlike Drake, who will always be Wheelchair Jimmy to me and nothing he ever does will make me take him seriously.

By: Anonymous

06.01.2011 @ 6:17 PM

I am pretty much the same age as the Saved by the Bell characters. In fact, the College Years spin-off aired while I was in college. I always think it’s interesting when they make shows for a younger audience that features kids who are older than the audience it’s aimed for. This was especially weird for The College Years — a prime time show aimed at pre-teens and set in a college. I think the cheese factor SBTB had in spades was it’s complete detachment from the reality of being in high school or in college. Even when they tried to do something topical it often ended in disaster (like poor Elizabeth Berkley singing I’m So Excited while strung out on diet pills — between this and Showgirls she was really suckerpunched by terrible material). Still, there is an innate charm that Saved by the Bell possesses. Or is it nostalgia. Either way, it’s light years better than all the kid shows today that are inexplicably all about teenagers who are celebrities. Who the hell thinks that’s a good idea?

By: Anonymous

06.01.2011 @ 9:12 PM

As someone else mentioned, his role on SVU was when I no longer thought of him as just Zach Morris.

However, I don’t know about this new show…….

By: LB

06.01.2011 @ 9:36 PM

I was about two years younger than the SBTB gang. I loved the show and didn’t realize how incredibly cheesy it was until years later. I remember being very upset when The College Years was cancelled…seeing it in reruns now, I can’t believe it was on for as many episodes as it was.
Zack and Kelly were my favorites, and when I see either of them now, it really is the first thing to pop into my head. But I know they are both better actors than they were on SBTB, and that association actually makes me root for them a little bit more. I’ve seen Tiffani in a lot more things since then, but I’ve only see Mark-Paul in a handful of things. I’m not sure if I’ll watch this new show (doesn’t really seem like my kind of thing), but I definitely wish him well and I’m happy to see that he’s been working as much as he has.
To this day, I love to use the phrase “Zack Morris cell phone” whenever I can. Man, we used to think he was so cool for having an actual cell phone (the size of a small computer).

By: Ben

06.01.2011 @ 9:58 PM

I became a diehard SBTB fan in 1991, when I would come home from high school and turn on the TV to see this show on TBS that was a high school comedy that wasn’t brilliant or earthshattering…but was just FUN to watch. I stuck with the show for a long time afterward (when I was visiting home during school breaks or post-education vacations, I would sometimes watch the repeats and just smile and shrug when my mom would say “You’re WAY TOO OLD TO WATCH THAT SHOW”), even catching the ill-fated 1993-94 College Years debacle on NBC and the underwhelming Saturday morning iterations of “The New Class”, until one day several years ago when I flipped on an episode, watched for a few minutes and said “I don’t feel much of anything about this show. It’s time to move on.”
But I still think about SBTB often, certainly more than objectively more polished and creative TV shows: the issues it dealt with, the fact that its early 90’s cable audience was proportional to the number of people who were watching NBC blockbusters like Cheers and Seinfeld, the way that much of the main cast led by MPG have been able to find continuing careers as they moved into adult roles. From the good (MPG’s work on BLUE) to the bad (the horrifying train wreck that has been just about everything Dustin Diamond has done over the past decade), SBTB resonates with me even after I no longer watch it again. It’s hard to believe on some level that it mattered that much. But it’s simple fact to note that it did.

By: Craig

06.01.2011 @ 10:11 PM

I’m about 3 or 4 years younger than the Bayside gang and I hated every simpering, stupid second of the show at the time. I want Mark-Paul to be successful in other things because he seems like a not-terrible person and he deserves better than to be remembered as Zach Morris.

By: TB

06.01.2011 @ 11:00 PM

savedbythebelding.com

By: Charlie

06.01.2011 @ 11:52 PM

I loved it at the time (I’m 24). Didn’t see it in reruns that much until college, so I only realized then how cheesy it was. We used to joke in high school, though, that Saved by the Bell ruined high school for us because it seemed a lot cooler on the show. I also remember a locker room conversation in h.s. about who was our generations first celebrity crush and the immediate consensus was Kelly Kapowski. And no, I’ll never see Gosseler w/o thinking of Zach Morris, but it is great how he can laugh about it now

By: Ellen

06.02.2011 @ 1:07 AM

I watched and loved Saved by the Bell as a pre-teen (or tween as we might say), and honestly as an adult I have come to appreciate that show not for its quality or content, but for the hilarious conversations and links it provides to new and old friends. We all watched it and loved it, and now we can sit around and replay our favorite episodes. It was there when we were young- its a common thread, and a fun one at that.

By: Mike

06.02.2011 @ 4:36 AM

I was never a fan of him until Dead Man on Campus. I still laugh thinking about how he had a bong in one hand and every scene had different clothes. I think he’s a very under-rated actor and would love to see him in a comedy.

By: Kellymyfirstcrush

06.02.2011 @ 7:05 AM

Amazingly if you go back and look at the ratings for The College Years on NBC it had better ratings as Glee. Yes, a lot has changed in the past 15 years, but still crazy to think about. It averaged about an 8 share for most of its time. It’s kind of hard to find the 18-49 demo for the show or the viewers, I am just going by old Variety articles. But it definitely beat Full House and Roc most weeks at the beginning of its run and then lost momentum towards the end of its run. I was in 6th grade when the College Years premiered and remember being so excited that my favorite show was airing in prime time. I can definitely watch the reruns( or my DVD sets) and recognize the cheese factor, but the nostalgia, and the joy that the old episodes brought me as a kid always wins out. Plus now, every now and then, my friends and I will play a Saved by The Bell drinking game. Take one shot every time Slater calls Zach preppie, everytime Lisa insults Screech, every time Jessie calls Slater pig, every time Zach freezes time, every time Belding says Hey Hey Hey what’s going on here?…

By: Alf

06.02.2011 @ 10:04 AM

I remember a rumor going around school in the early ’90s that the guy who played Zack Morris had died in a motorcycle accident. It was upsetting to a lot of girls. Sine there was no Wikipedia/Twitter/etc. then, the rumor stuck for quite a while.